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with the inspection of the voters’ roll and there will be no additional 30-day period for inspection, Zimbabwe Electoral Commission chairperson Justice Rita Makarau has said.
This flies in the face of MDC formations’ claims that after the 30-day ward-based mobile voter registration, ZEC should add another month for inspection of the voters’ roll.
Speaking at a consultative meeting with civil society organisations in Harare yesterday, Justice Makarau said inspection of the voters’ roll was free of charge and anomalies should be brought to the electoral body within the next 30 days for correction.
“Contrary to assertions by some people, the law stipulates that the 30-day period should be for voter registration as well as inspection of the voters’ roll,” she said.
“This means the two processes will run simultaneously and we will not have a separate 30-day period for registration and an additional 30-day period for inspection.
“While registration of first-time voters is taking place, all those who have voted before are urged to inspect the voters’ roll of the respective wards and ensure that their names are still on the roll.
“We also call upon stakeholders to inspect the voters’ roll and bring to our attention anomalies found and as ZEC we promise and undertake to direct the Registrar-General of Voters to correct the anomalies.
“Some have alleged that their names have been removed and thereafter replaced on the roll and all these allegations are a cause of great concern to the commission.” Justice Makarau said after the voter registration blitz, those left out could still go to the Registrar-General’s offices to register.
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“Voter registration is an ongoing exercise and if you are left out you can still register but this should be 24 hours before the sitting of the nomination court. After that, if you are not on the roll you will not vote.”
Justice Makarau said civic societies wishing to collaborate with ZEC in voter education should be apolitical and be guided by the law.
“A lot of civic organisations have applied for accreditation and we are starting to consider those that meet the requirements today.
“We do not expect them to be biased towards certain political parties and if they want to use their own material, they should bring it to us first for vetting. Our vetting involves checking whether the material is correct factually or not biased towards part A or B,” she said.
Justice Makarau said the new voter registration exercise would be publicised to avoid what happened during the one carried out last month.
“Our teams were deployed as of Wednesday, two per each wards countrywide. We are aware of the distance and differences of the wards,” she said.
“We are going to visit village-by -village assisted by the leadership of those areas and those (educators) that would have completed the smaller wards will be deployed to the bigger wards.
“Apart from the media, we are also using schools and colleges to ask children to go and tell their parents where and when the mobile teams would be available.”
She said people with disabilities would be catered for.
Responding to suggestion by some civic organisations that the voters’ roll should be posted on the ZEC website, Commissioner Geoff Feltoe said that was outside the law.
“Section 21 of the Electoral Act stipulates that the RG’s Office can make available copies of the voters roll in printed or electronic form and this has to be purchased. There is no provision that it should be posted on the website hence making it impossible for the Commission to do like you wish,” he said.
Professor Feltoe said Zimbabweans in the diaspora would not vote in the harmonised elections.
“As the law stands there are two categories of people who vote outside the normal voting process,” said Prof Feltoe.
“There is special voting given to people like the uniformed forces who will be on duty on the actual polling day and these people vote before the dates. Postal voting is for people outside the country on Government business, meaning there is no legal process that incorporates the public in the diaspora.”
Registrar General Mr Tobaiwa Mudede said the Africa Commission on Human and People’s Rights that ruled in February this year that Government should make provisions allowing Zimbabweans abroad to use the postal voting system had no say in the country’s electoral processes.
“We have rejected that issues of elections or of citizenship laws is a sovereign issue and it belongs to a country. the African Commission cannot impose anything on any country and they can not tell us how to handle our citizenship laws.”
He said the acquiring national identity documents or replacing lost ones for all Zimbabweans would be done free of charge until the last day of voter registration for the forthcoming harmonised elections.
Online Reporter